In the design of gas/electric pilots for gas burning ignitors which premix a combustible mixture of gas and air before burning, a bluff object placed in the mixture at the edge of the flame front, as set forth in Canadian Pat. No. 925,426 to Vignes, stabilizes the flame at that location if operating conditions and mixture ratio are carefully controlled. Bluff-body flame stabilization has not proven entirely satisfactory for present industrial gas burner applications requiring ignitors with capacities of 1 to 2 million btu/hr. using a variety of different gases with compressed or windbox air over a wide range of mixture ratios. One of the reasons for this ignitor instability is that pilot flame is not present in the ignitor all the time.
There is thus an established need for a gas/electric pilot for gas burning ignitors in which the pilot stays lit all the time and gives stable ignition over a capacity from 1 to 2 million btu/hr. and a wide range of mixture ratios using many different gases with compressed or windbox atmospheric air in combustible proportions.